The present invention relates to secure storage of keys and, in particular, it concerns a remotely activated and monitored key safe that can be used to store and retrieve one or more keys.
It is known that keys to open locks of various configurations are stored in close vicinity of such locks for a number of situations including residential and commercial applications, such as where fire officials or others must rapidly gain access to the interior of a building to extinguish a fire or deal with other emergencies or specific security situations or as a back up to aid in case of loss of or damage to keys. In the case of an emergency situation, one known procedure is for a fire official to maintain a key ring with attached keys for buildings located in his fire station zone and to bring the key ring to the emergency location. This procedure allows the fire official access to the lock using one or more of the attached keys. However, this procedure is disadvantageous—mainly because of the critical time it may take to sort through multiple key rings for a vast number of buildings within a given fire station zone. Also, should the appropriate key not be available for whatever reason, in an emergency situation, and the door or window (for example) is destroyed to gain access and emergency personnel are precluded from relocking the premises after dealing with the emergency or with the false alarm. This situation can then place the premises at risk, sometimes more extreme than the initial emergency. Among additional disadvantages with this method is the fact that keys and key rings must continually be updated from many sources and that these keys must also be sorted and stored securely. The logistics and overall cost associated with this method are another strong disadvantage.
A number of devices have been proposed to deal with the situations noted hereinabove. Campagna, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,296,617, whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference, discloses a high security key receptacle which is attachable to an aperture in a door or like structure having an interior and exterior surface. The receptacle, which holds a key for the door in which the receptacle is mounted, has an open end facing flush with the exterior of the door. A closure plug having a lock closes off the open end of the receptacle. A flange is used to securely fasten the receptacle to the inside surface of the door, preventing extraction of the receptacle through the aperture. The fire department, in response to an emergency situation, can rapidly gain access to the stored key by inserting the fire department key into the closure plug lock, removing the closure plug, and accessing the stored key. The receptacle disclosed by Campagna has a disadvantage in that it still requires a key to open the safe, which must be maintained by emergency personnel (be they the fire department, paramedics, or others) when they approach the exemplary locked door or window.
Other key safes employ combination locks to avoid the disadvantage noted above. Gaston discloses a key safe in U.S. Pat. No. 4,615,281 whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference. The key safe disclosed by Gaston is deployed in a building door and the safe has an open ended housing secured within and projecting through the door. A safe door is hinged to and closes the end of the housing and has a retractable latch bar engaged with the building door to lock the safe door. A combination lock having buttons on the safe door includes a normally-open printed circuit connected to a power source. A solenoid is connected to the circuit and includes a plunger connected to the latch bar. A tamper proof key tray is nested within the housing and is normally spring biased for ejection inwardly of the building door, thereby ejecting the key from the safe and to the secured side of the building door. A first detent assembly is interposed between the safe door and the tray so that any forceful opening of the safe door disengages the detent assembly. A storage battery is included as the power source for the solenoid.
Some disadvantages of key safes such as described above include:                the key safe is set into a building door and the safe is not necessarily useful for securing a key for an outdoor application such as a gate, etc.;        the combination lock or other type of lock used to secure such safes must be physically operated by a person located at the safe, and should the person not be capable of opening the safe (does not have the combination or key, or is a child who cannot operate the combination or lock, etch) the safe cannot be opened;        the safe may be inoperable upon battery failure; and        except for physically inspecting and opening the safe, there is no way to readily determine the state (locked, unlocked, damaged, etc.) of the safe or of its contents.        
There is therefore a need for a secure, remotely activated and monitored key safe that can be used to securely store and retrieve one or more keys and/or other similarly shaped objects.